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Bring a cart with you.
From time to time we are at venues where walking is impractical. Usually we will ride our bicycles, or even rent a golf cart. The most recent event was the great Air and Coach Concours at Lakeland. The event spread over 200 acres and there was so much to do we were on the go all the time trying to cover everything.
Fortunately for us Ken Robertson was such a smooth talker he convinced us to buy a Cricket ESV from him. This little frour wheel cart is just the ticket for getting around and covering a lot of ground.
We knew immediately it would easily fit into the back of our H2 Hummer because that was how we picked it up. But since we also tow a 50 Ford there was no way we could bring the Cricket with us if we towed that. So I set out to see if I could make it fit in the bay of the bus, without having to leave all my stuff behind.
It fits very well, although I had to go through some gyrations to make it happen. But the work was worth the effort
It ended up not being so easy because the slide room opening reinforcements that cut into the bay height presented a real problem, so I wrote the article listed below to detail what I had to do so others with an XLII with slides can also get the cricket into their bay.
Contact Ken Robertson at Parliament Coach and let him sell you a Cricket for your bay. It’s a great little cart.
http://prevostcommunity.com/PDF/Prevost%20Coaches%20and%20Crickets.pdf
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15 Replies
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So how much is that little beauty, Jon?
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How heavy is it, and are you still ok on weights?
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The web site says 303 pounds, but no cost.
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I would rather you contact Ken regarding cost. I don’t know if he was running show specials or not because I bought it at the Air and Coach Concours this month, and he has two versions and one seats four.
I was under my front axle weight by an amount greater than the weight of the cart so I do not expect any problems in that regard. My net weight gain is less than the weight of the cart because I removed the joey bed on the cart side along with my inability to put some chairs and an aluminum table back in the bay. I also removed the rear basket from the cart. My net gain is likely 250 to 275 pounds.
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Jon, you are my kind of man. Although I probably want be buying one of the little carts, the modifications you made to your bay along with the article was impressive. That shows what a little forethought and a good shop can do.
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When are threads like this going to stop? One post or thread after another about things I didn’t know I needed. I just can’t keep up. You’d think we’d run out of stuff at some point.
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That project took more than a week because of the challenges the clearances created plus the fact I did not want to lose the ability to carry almost all the items we were carrying in the bay.
Now that I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I should have stripped both bays and started all over. For sure I would get rid of the joey bed on the passenger side also.
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That project took more than a week because of the challenges the clearances created plus the fact I did not want to lose the ability to carry almost all the items we were carrying in the bay.
Now that I have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I should have stripped both bays and started all over. For sure I would get rid of the joey bed on the passenger side also.
I couild drop the spare parts drawers onto the bay floor, restore the chair pockets, put the Libertty tool chest slide beneath the tool box and by doing that I would totally eliminate the need for ramps beneath the rear of the Cricket. But for now that ship has sailed so I’m considering the project done.
The whole project could have been done in less than a day, but I spent a lot of hours “playing” with different approaches to the issue, verifying clearances, and insuring nothing I did on the Cricket side had any impact on the passenger side. I probably ran the cart in and out 20 or 30 times, forward and backward until I had the best compromise. Even after knowing how I was going to do it, I still was playing with not only the front to rear positioning, I was also moving the Cricket side to side to make sure of both clearances as well as storage for my stuff.
Without the slide reinforcements, or in an H this entire project literally stops being a project because it is a simple matter of just driving the Cricket into the bay.
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Jon could you have let some air out of the tires to give you some more room with height issues?
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Greg:
Please be careful asking Jon such questions. I am prone to believe that Jon would follow your question and let the air out of the Bus tires and then complain that the approach angle into the bay was now too shallow to clear the tiller. :<)
Fred
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Greg, I considered a lot of alternatives, including fender removal, flattening the tires, etc. and it became apparent the more I had to do to restore the Cricket for riding the less attractive using it would be.
As it is right now, to remove it from the bay all I have to do is release the holding strap, turn on the key and move the pedal and run it down the ramps. The seat and back do not require any tools to put back in position so in a minute or so it is on the ground ready to go. Same with storing although it requires a little care to get it lined up with the ramps.
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I’am here in KC reading the morning buzz on PC. Then out of the blue it hit me while looking at Jon’s Cricket post.
Carrying the Cricket, making the alterations, disassemble, reassemble, move this move that, and you’ll agree with this news flash…..
I think there could be a “H” model Liberty in Jon’s future.
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Especially if you see him raising the height of his barn to accommodate the H’s extra height!
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Nice job on the cart and article. I almost got a hernia in Lakelant trying to squeeze a freaking 315 Hummer tire in that bay with all the rest of the crap Jon was carrying. We were both on our knee’s banging our heads on the damn slide, wheezing, sweating like pigs and Jon pushed so hard he farted at which time I tried to stand up to miss the vapor and almost knocked myself out on the slide. He does need an H.
So now we know you actually can squeeze 10 lbs. of crap in a 5 lb. bag. As a side note, I could load the cricket in my H while riding it. In fact, I could ride right on through the bay, kind of like a pull through. Really, would I stretch the truth…
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Tom is not lying about the pushing and shoving we went through to get the seat and tire from the Hummer into the bay so we could get the Cricket home in the back of the Hummer. He is lying about the fart. I believe it was rose petals he was smelling.
I suppose I could have run the slide in so we weren’t banging our head on the bottom of the slide while we were fighting to get the stuff in the bay. But all has been solved The spare tire and rear seat are back in the Hummer where they belong, most of my assortment of crap is back in the bus along with the Cricket. I don’t need no stinkin H3 because I got my stuff back in the bay and if it won’t fit, I don’t need it.
Having a drive through Cricket garage in the bay of a bus would be nice. For people that are so old they can’t drive.
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